Ghaziabad, June 11 (IANS) A team of police personnel from Mumbra in Maharashtra arrived here on Sunday to collect electronic evidence in connection with the conversion case of non-Muslim children through gaming app ‘Fortnite’, an official said.
A source privy to the developments in the case said that a two-member police team arrived in Ghaziabad on Saturday. The Mumbra Police team has collected documents, photos, videos, audio clips and some mobile numbers in connection with the case.
Besides, the team was also provided with the copy of an FIR that was registered at Kavi Nagar police station.
DCP Nipun Agrawal had earlier told the media that the Ghaziabad Police had also received information about the conversion of 400 people from Mumbra through a gaming app. The informer has also provided photos and videos to the police.
NCP legislator Jitendra Awhad, however, challenged this claim, saying if the Ghaziabad Police can present even two cases of conversions, “I will quit politics.”
Taking to Twitter, Awhad on June 9 wrote: “A senior police official from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh states that 400 people of Hindu and Jain religion have been lured and converted into Muslims and being forced to follow Islamic practices. It’s disheartening to hear senior police official speak loosely on such a sensitive issue without substantiating with proofs on the source of the news and the numbers they claim.”
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader further said: “The news article not only maligns the improved image of Mumbra but also is an attempt to create communal disharmony among the Kausa and Mumbra area of Maharashtra, which is home to 20 per cent Hindu population too.”
Awhad also said that the Maharashtra Police must come out in support of Mumbra.
“The cities of Mumbra and Kausa offer the safest living to people of any and every religion and making such loose statements is regressive and politically motivated,” he said.
The NCP leader also criticised the Uttar Pradesh government, saying: “It is shocking to see the government of Uttar Pradesh involve themselves in causing communal unrest in the name of politics.
“This will not be tolerated by the community of Mumbra and I strongly urge the government of Uttar Pradesh to refrain from making such comments to infuriate communal hatred towards the Islamic community,” he further said.
Meanwhile, police officers submitted that the Ghaziabad Police never claimed about the conversion of 400 people but just told the media about the information the department received.
–IANS
pkt/pgh/uk/